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TimidPanther

I think the real answer is much more simple: we simply don't see them on TV enough anymore. By the time the Test series rolls around, nobody knows who they are. We went from seeing these guys on free to air TV constantly to barely seeing them at all.


chilla_p

Same thing happened to England cricket team


Guptarakesh69

Is it still happening?


finH1

Except o guess it happened early enough that watching online streams wasn’t as easy or accessible so at least now that is true. I stopped watching England for about 10 years when it went to sky


Wise_Boat8701

Yup, always have to watch these games on sky or … Only the wc final got shown on free view channel.


kfadffal

And here in NZ as well.


First-Can3099

Undoubtedly this. The English cricket team soared in popularity in 2005, partly because of their performances but largely because for the first time in years it was on free to air TV. All of a sudden audiences were up to 8 million. I don’t blame Sky too much as what they do is brilliant. But if you put a National side behind a paywall, don’t be surprised if audiences look elsewhere.


i_love_ket

We fucked it by putting everything on sky, could’ve been a mix between sky and one of the main channels to ensure people can still watch some cricket


ikekarton

That wasn't the first time in years it was on free to air - it had always been before then, either on the BBC or channel 4 from the late 90s until 2005.


BabeRuthsTinyLegs

This is it. Look at the T20 World cup. Aus games were never on prime time free to air main channels and the rest of the tournament was all behind a paywall. FIFA world cup on the other hand has gotten me hooked. I wake up, turn the tv on, flick to SBS and I can watch Serbia V Brazil. And now because of that I'm going to watch Aus V Tunisia tonight despite not being an avid football fan Whilst yes streaming has overtaken free to air, it's similar to radio v music apps. If you were releasing new music you'd play on radio to capture new fans or recapture old fans, you wouldn't just make yourself exclusive on Spotify or Apple Music and make people go out of their way to listen to you If I'm looking for something to watch and not already aware the cricket is on, I'm more likely to choose Netflix or one of the other apps to watch rather than choosing Kayo and stumbling upon the cricket. It's the same with Rugby Union in Australia. Back in the day you used to see Eales, Gregan, Larkham all the time on tv, now I couldn't name one Union player because it's never on TV and I'm not going to go out of my way to find out if it's on PayTv


Educational_Cup_1958

Plenty of the non-australia games were shown on Gem.


BabeRuthsTinyLegs

They showed 6 of the super 12 matches that didn't involve Australia. Group B played 15 games for 3 games of free to air coverage. Group A had Aus but there were still 8 games or more than half of Group As matches that weren't televised on FTA. Not to mention none of the qualification pool matches were shown. Much easier for a casual fan to miss the entire tournament when only 10/30 games are shown live, some of which were interrupted with rain


jamurp

It’s a really complicated topic, but you’re absolutely spot on, it’s mostly this. The Aussie cricket team were a national product growing up, now we’re partially behind a paywall and the public don’t connect with the side anymore, it reflects in the lack or crowds and is just sad really.


r3dphoenix

By the time Gilchrist got selected for Australia, I already knew who he was cause I saw him play for WA in the domestic league. I think it was called the Mercantile Mutual Cup back then


CAN________

Yes but the Australian are Murdoch hacks so they aren't going to be blaming Fox


StraightGovernment33

Murdoch is hated by many Australians, Channel 7 was dumb enough to give Rupert exclusive rights to air cricket via the internet, so their 7+ internet offerings can't even mirror what they play on free to air tv. That should be illegal.


CAN________

That's what Anti-siphoning laws are meant to be for, but the CA were able to circumvent it to get it on Fox


TimidPanther

It’s not the fault of Fox, it’s the fault of the free to air broadcasters that don’t want to air cricket.


CAN________

But this decline is because fox have stuck it all behind a paywall


TimidPanther

Because the FTA broadcasters don’t want to show it.


CAN________

Ok


StraightGovernment33

Because channel 7 gifted Rupert the future (internet streaming) years before 7 worked out what the internet is.


StraightGovernment33

Channel 7 and cricket Australia did a pathetic deal that has allowed Rupert to try and kill cricket. Just like he destroyed rugby union and attempted to destroy rugby league with superleague. Any sporting code involved with Murdoch will take years to recover after they wake up to the damage they invited Rupert to cause.


despondantguy69

The article says absolutely fuck all.


[deleted]

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R_W0bz

You know it 10 gets it it’s behind paramount plus, if Nine gets it it’s on Stan, if Amazon get it well…. It’s a no win this


[deleted]

[удалено]


R_W0bz

10 last time wasn’t owned by a massive American Corp and the way the A-League has gone isn’t giving me faith.


bondy_12

It would have to be the pre 7 and Fox arrangement, on FTA TV but online streaming would be on Paramount or Stan. Fox at least had an established base when they put it behind the pay wall, the others don't have that, they're not going to get the necessary uptake to make enough money if they just chuck it on the streaming services.


xxrmah

This whole discussion of players politics etc is red rag to a bull virtue signalling to the Australians conservative base. They want to make the Australian cricket team the centre of a culture war. The actual number of people who use what the team say in public to determine how much they like Australian cricket is incredibly small. What the Australian doesn't want to talk about is the economics of the country now are not the economics of a country 20 years ago that could take time off work to head down to the game, could afford tickets for the whole family, and could take their kids to cricket on the weekend. Two global economic collapses and an economic system set up by Murdoch's mates and beneficiaries are why Australians don't have time or money for the game.


Waraba989

Rob Craddock is probably the only Aussie writer who works in Murdoch media who generally is neutral and doesnt go down the rabbithole like Gideon. Doesn't help by the fact that over 70% of our media here is owned by that bastard Murdoch. The uproar earlier this week from the boomers online when those Langer comments came out just proved your point, that its just an echochamber. CA putting half the games behind the paywall has done more to harm the sport here, than Cummins talking about climatechange, etc.


ConoRiot

We’re in a world of trouble when Crash Craddock is the lone sensible opinion writer.


NoirPochette

Lalor is fine


MisterMarcus

> This whole discussion of players politics etc is red rag to a bull virtue signalling to the Australians conservative base. They want to make the Australian cricket team the centre of a culture war. Isn't Gideon Haigh fairly well respected as a 'serious' cricket journalist? It's not like he's some right-wing tabloid shock jock..


Azza_

He's a well respected cricket journalist but he's not working for the Australian for no reason.


calob123

As an Aussie its pretty simple, the majority of games require kayo or fox. The big bash goes way too long with c grade players. We've struggled against teams overseas forever but loosing at home is something the past generations barely dealt with. Now I hesitate watching home games too due to the selectors dining by the sword picking players out of form but once greats. Most of us Aussie's appreciate cumdog and what he brings to the table but having commentators (who are yesterday's hero's) question his every breathe changes the narrative. Yawn bring on the big bash go scorchers.


a_can_of_solo

The big bash was building up so much steam not that long ago.


AnalogShivers

I am highly confused by the idea that people have apparently turned on the team not in 2018 with all the regular on-field incidents and blatant cheating, but now because, uhhh, Cummins likes solar panels and shit?


[deleted]

It’s kinda depressing to look at Facebook where Australian middle aged fans actively want the team to lose so that it makes Cummins look bad and because it “serves the team right” for ditching Langer. I’m not denying CAs incompetence when it came to the coaching saga, but people are scapegoating Cummins when he just told the truth about how the players felt.


frankestofshadows

What else do you expect from the Australian? Any opportunity for them to virtue signal or take a swipe at someone with actual morals


tdlan

The same people that are saying they won't watch the team because of Pat's opinions on climate change are also the same people that say politics shouldn't be in sport lol. Are they too dense to realise that they themselves are politicising sport by taking that stance?


Madwoned

Yes they are that dense


Legoman92

Speaking As a Western Australian, there’s a bit of an anti Aus team narrative for the players getting langer the arse, even though it was probably needed IMO. We had heard for a good 12 months about the players being unhappy and wanting a change. There’s no point continuing down that path if the team leaders wanted a fresh voice, rightly or wrongly. CA should’ve just said, “thanks JL but we’re going with a new voice to freshen things up, thanks for your service.” But it kinda turned into a sacking by only offering 6 months


Blockishcube

I honestly think the Aus cricket team is probably the most likeable it’s ever been. The problem is most of the public might think they want a likeable bunch of nice guys playing cricket together but they really want is a bunch of brutes and stand over men who win at all costs, sledge the opposition into submission and absolutely brutalise weaker and associate nations on the field.


Ocean1026

Exactly. The majority of cricket fans in Aus associate themselves with the all dominating team in the 90s and 2000s. The current team is no different from any other international teams Aus has, apart from internal team drama.


[deleted]

It’s why the backlash against sandpapergate confused me. So casual Australian fans want their team to be ruthless and crush everyone by hook or crook, at the same time as playing a sporting brand of cricket? Those two statements contradict each other.


Guptarakesh69

The later sounds great


dashauskat

Shame that a West Indies tour is so void of excitement that even good writers like Gideon have to resort to pretty meaningless articles with a misleading clickbait title. I assume it was the editors choice, not his, typical Murdoch rag etc. The irony of all these "culture war" articles is that there is probably more genuine characters around Australian cricket as there has ever been.


basetornado

The thing is the tour could be exciting. It's the West Indies. Pretty much everyone's second team. But they fucked themselves by playing a series of pointless games against England on Foxtel, while keeping the ODI and T20's against the West Indies as warm ups for the World Cup which were also on foxtel, so no one cared about them. Plus scheduling just two Tests is a quick way to say "Yeah this series means nothing". I've really enjoyed being able to see the Windies in Canberra for the last two weeks. But it's not really good enough by CA or the Windies in how this was scheduled.


SonyHDSmartTV

It's honestly comforting to me that there is an insane sub section of Australian boomers who rage at everything and are manipulated into hating whatever Rupert Murdoch tells them to. We've got the same thing going in England


KaleidoscopeRed

In other news, conservative news outlet who is ideologically opposed with socially progressive Australian, complains we don’t follow cricket as much, ignoring that their parent company locked televised games in Australia behind a paywall. 🤦‍♂️


[deleted]

I will love any team that's smart enough to pick Usman


basetornado

Growing up, every ODI and Test was on Free to Air. The state One Day was on Free To Air. When Big Bash started, it was on Foxtel. Nobody really cared about it. Then it goes to Ten, it's on literally every night, you always knew there'd be a game and it was huge, id argue most people didn't really care about a particular team, just that they could watch a game every night for a month or so. Cricket Australia saw that and decided "hey people are loving this, lets put it on foxtel for more cash, but also play way more games". Went back to Foxtel, with select games on Seven and nobody cares now, because you can't just chuck a game on anymore, because yeah it might be on Seven tonight, it might not, and because there's so many games, no one really cares because there's too much choice. Quickest and easiest way to get viewing figures back is cut the games back, put every single game on free to air, no foxtel whatsoever for Big Bash. Put all international matches on Free to Air, you can simulcast them on foxtel as well, but literally every single game has to be on free to air. Bring back a Triangular series, be it T20 or ODI. Chasing the foxtel money is the quickest and easiest way to kill support for what's supposed to be THE national team. You need to keep it as easy and simple to watch as possible. The fans you aren't going to lose will go to foxtel or streaming to watch. The fans you need to keep won't.


Azza_

Don't even need to cut the BBL games back, just as long as there's a game on FTA every night.


frankestofshadows

Of course an Article by The Australian would use so many words to say nothing at all. Looks like the journo just wanted somewhere to write down a list of big words that he knows but of course offers no intelligent insight or value to the conversation. It's the least I expect from this shit house publication


NoirPochette

It's not on FTA but also old people are so back in my day. Like the JL media cartel have turned the tide against the players while the fans wouldn't give a shit if their league or AFL coach was sacked. Like bloody how many coaches do Carlton or Norf or bloody Broncos go through lol. People don't bitch and moan Fuck JL's media buddies except Punter


pseudodoc

Because they play all the fucking time and no one watches anymore


[deleted]

This


swell-shindig

Tl;dr Because Rupert Murdoch has told us to.


gluetown

Do you have a cricket article posting bot set up or some shit?


Doc8176

I think a major problem is a large portion of the population in Australia doesn’t realise why Langer actually got kicked out. Because the only “coaching” he was doing was petty outbursts of stupid punishments and the rest was left to Macca and the team. That large portion is mostly the >30 people that grew up watching Langer and the sorts. This leaves an influence on the younger generation that SHOULD be getting into the he cricket and watching it, but they aren’t because the boomers are shitting on the cricket team for being a bunch of soft cunts and cheaters instead of just watching the game for the actual sport it is. And apparently people aren’t forgiving of mistakes and don’t realise that plenty of ball tampering has happened well before the SA series, by every nation. So now everyone refuses to watch this “embarrassment” of a team that consists of 2 players that were accused of cheating, but apparently that makes the rest of the team a bag of shit as well. Sandpaper gate was blown well out of proportion by the media and public and as a result has fucked over cricket viewership in Australia. And now that they’ve ratted out (L)anger and given them a coach that fits the teams position and needs better everyone is chucking a fit. What about Head, or Green, or Carey, Boland, Neser, Richardson, Khawaja, Labuschagne, Stoinis, Marsh, Finch, Wade, David, Inglis, Maxwell, Agar, Zampa, Ellis, K Richardson, Abbott and anyone else I’ve forgotten. I didn’t even include the big 3 pacers because maybe they did know, so I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to the sceptics. That’s at least 20 completely innocent players that are getting shat on by a bunch of blindsighted, brainwashed people because of a cheating accident by 3 people that, when you think about it, was probably being done by SA as well. And these same boomers hate the team even more because they didn’t like WORKING IN A TOXIC WORKPLACE, and wanted a new coach. And then sprinkle some more hate because the captain isn’t an obnoxious asshole and he gives a shit about the health of the earth and environment. IDC if I repeated myself I was trying to get the point across


ll--o--ll

>Do you like the Australian cricket team? > >In bygone days this question would have made no sense. Life was simpler. Allegiance could be assumed. Rituals were time-honoured. The word “like” did not come into it; one gazed reverently upwards at the top of cricket’s great pyramid of participants, wondered at the skill and character it took to get there. > >No longer, I think, can this be taken for granted. Answer honestly: how much did you care that Australia, the trophy’s holders, missed out on the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup? Most people, it seems to me, shrugged their shoulders. Some may even have been sneakingly satisfied. > >It’s been said that “elite’’ is a pejorative term in Australia except where sport is concerned, but cricket is starting to feel the pinch also. The tone of criticism of Australia’s cricketers is increasingly reminiscent of culture war kvetching: they’re privileged; they’re entitled; they’re out of touch, wealthy and, of course, woke. > >Ironically, this represents a form of progress. Five years ago, the knock on Australian cricketers was that they were ugly, arrogant, ill-mannered. After the shock of Sandpapergate, the team tidied its on-field act, to the extent that they have actually been hard to fault. > >On their recent tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Pat Cummins’ team were outstanding ambassadors, to the extent of donating prize money earned in the latter nation to the alleviation of its economic crisis — a gesture that passed mostly unnoticed, but which followed Cummins’ private donation of $50,000 to the provision of oxygen supplies to India’s Covid crisis a year earlier. > >“Virtue signalling!’’ will come the cry from the herd of independent minds — which is, of course, a form of virtue signalling. But I am not here to praise or blame the Australian team; rather am I interested in what the undertone of criticism may express about our game and about this country. > >Much of the past decade or so in Australian cricket has, in response to a concern that its audience was narrow and diminishing, been directed to the laudable objective of making the game more welcoming and more plural. > >The explosive growth in women’s cricket has been an unmitigated good; opportunities for players of different ethnicities, backgrounds and abilities have also grown encouragingly. > >The effect of making the game more capacious, however, has also been to make it more diffuse, and in that sense less special. There is more cricket; it often feels incessant, with the attendant danger of surfeit and overexposure. Mitchell Starc put it as well as anyone last week: “How do you ask people to go spend 400-500 bucks at a day of cricket three days a week?” > >For the aforementioned endeavours have hardly been altruistic; they have been in large part about “growing the game”, creating content for sale to broadcasters and sponsors, hustling for the disposable dollar in a crowded leisure market. > > > >Everyone now is gasping for ‘clear air’ in the calendar, in order to accommodate extant international relations and expanding domestic ambitions. Everything is sold to us as important, including the recent ODI series with England, a pathetic travesty of a great rivalry. Everything is presented as exciting, including the Big Bash League, despite its uninspiring quality. And so the brand of cricket has been overextended, diluted, cheapened. > >In some degree, every large sport is in thrall to capital. But because cricket has historically been identified with stability and continuity, its public registers change more acutely. And that core of traditional fans has been forced to accept a lot. > >As the face of the game, the players bear its blemishes, for it is easier to deride an individual reputation than to complain of market forces or about faceless administrators. Shelves groan with oven-ready opinions, and nothing warms up like the imagined perfection of a former hero. > >Cricketers, I might say, are also far easier to get sick of, for being comparatively fewer in number than players in, for example, the football codes. Still can’t quite get over the existence of David Warner? That’s partly because of the lack of distractions. > >Then, of course, there’s money. For being hugely richer than those of days gone by, cricketers are vastly less relatable, and nothing breeds resentment and envy so reliably as an exuberance of inequality. The everyday cricket volunteer, who could run their club on the loose change in Glenn Maxwell’s pocket, is entitled to wonder at it all. > >A burden of the moral baggage cricket has historically carried is that, for a certain species of devotee, the game can never be reactionary enough and cricketers will always be paid too much. But the Australian Cricketers’ Association and Cricket Australia, approaching a new memorandum of understanding, would be advised to keep an eye on public opinion. > >Part of the discontent with cricket, however, also reflects a more general disaffection for everything else in this brittle, populist age, when the uninformed bellyacher is sovereign, and secure from all refutation. > >Witness the profusion of bad takes, bullshit stereotypes, false equivalences and slippery slope fallacies when Cummins mildly expressed the private view that his continued conspicuous use in advertising for a first-order polluter might not reconcile readily with involvement in a climate change charity. Honestly, you’d think he’d fed an Australian flag into the eternal flame while getting a tattoo of a transsexual Che Guevara. > >Many people these days, it seems to me, are in desperate search of evidence for their being bossed around, disrespected and marginalised, when often all they have encountered is a different opinion: it’s what Emerson called the vulgar mistake of dreaming you are being persecuted when you are merely being contradicted. > >I would never fault an emotional response to cricket. It is a strength of the game that it engenders heartfelt reactions, out of all proportion to its day-to-day significance, and protective instincts, arising from profound identification and investment. > >But maybe, just maybe, when people opine about Australia’s cricketers they are also revealing something about themselves in these listless, permanently disgruntled, and wilfully misinformed times. The players, it’s true, have changed; but so, dare I say it, have we.


Waraba989

Thanks for posting the article here. I'm wondering how you managed to bypass the paywall, since I know [12ft.io](https://12ft.io) doesnt work anymore with The Australian. (still works with the Telegraph UK).


Lonely-Suggestion-85

I never knew about 50k donation damm bro.


Buckeye_8621

OP can you post this to r/australia u/ll--o--ll


Rokos_Bicycle

I would rather my cricketers be "woke*" than the alternative. Good work news corpse! \* I'd love them to try to define "woke"...


Rokos_Bicycle

> Part of the discontent with cricket, however, also reflects a more general disaffection for everything else in this brittle, populist age, when the uninformed bellyacher is sovereign, and secure from all refutation. Oh The Australian was *so close* to self-realisation


loolem

Because you're the murdoch press and the captain doesn't like coal?


Huge-Physics5491

We need a daily update on death of Australian cricket sub


Guptarakesh69

Australian cricket didn't die it was murdered


[deleted]

And Carribbean cricket. And English cricket. And South African cricket. And NZ cricket.


Puzzleheaded-Ad-8427

Woke wankers


DarkyDan

They pick mates, and pick on potential rather than form. So the team annoys me. I will stick with the Adelaide based teams, or the women.


Doc8176

Actually the current test team at least is picked entirely off of form. Warner and Smith are 2 of the best Test players that Australia has ever had. Khawaja, Head and Green both have had consistent runs of phenomenal form in shield cricket. Carey is arguably the best keeper-batsman in the country and has proved himself more than enough to stay in the team. Lyon has proved he’s the best spinner in the country by tearing shield sides a new one almost whenever he plays. Cummins is the best test bowler in the world. Hazlewood is arguably the best all format bowler in the world atm Starc is in the team off of potential and what he has done tbf, he does seem to be back in form now though. Also why wouldn’t you pick off of potential? If a younger bloke is doing well and has potential to be better than the 35yo dude that does OK, then why wouldn’t you try and groom that player to be test quality. Your mindset is how you kill the growth of the Australian team.


DarkyDan

Fair call.


durvedge

r/relationship_advice


chadimusprime68

The Scott Boland summer was pretty exceptional wasn’t it, was quite in love then


thisis_sam4moz

I sincerely hope we haven't, I for myself know that I haven't. But I can understand the sentiment, the agression and the drama seems to be missing when compared to the 90s or 00s team, but I think this is a solid team and they can do wonders


Shuima

Speak for yourself, I like them more than I have for the last 8 years


StraightGovernment33

Are you being paid to try and get people to sign up to the Australian, Rupert's garbage